Was Reds lefty Andrew Abbott an All-Star snub?: C. Notes

For now, Elly De La Cruz is the only Cincinnati Reds player selected for the All-Star Game.

While De La Cruz was voted in by his peers, it was Major League Baseball that decided there were better choices than Reds lefty Andrew Abbott, who could still be added to his first All-Star team.

The 26-year-old Abbott is 7-1 with a 2.15 ERA in 15 starts this season. Abbott’s thrown 83 2/3 innings, which isn’t enough to qualify him for the ERA title. Of qualified starters in the National League, only the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul Skenes has a lower ERA than Abbott, with a 1.96 ERA in 19 starts.

Was it a snub?

First, look at the selection process. There is fan voting, player voting and then MLB selects the rest, making sure each team is represented.

After the fan and player votes, six spots remained on the National League roster, with two teams needing representation, the Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins.

MLB chose Brewers starter Freddy Peralta and Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers to represent their two teams. That left four spots, three of which went to pitchers and one to a position player, Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves.

The three pitchers who got the nod over Abbott are Matthew Boyd of the Chicago Cubs, Robbie Ray of the San Francisco Giants and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Here’s how Abbott stacks up against the four pitchers added by MLB:

Andrew Abbott vs. All-Star picks

Pitcher

  

G

  

IP

  

W-L

  

ERA

  

ERA+

  

WHIP

  

SO

  

K%

  

BB

  

BB%

  

15

83.2

7-1

2.15

208

1.09

78

23

22

6.5

17

98.2

8-3

2.65

144

1.08

87

22.1

22

5.3

18

99

9-4

2.91

138

1.09

104

25.5

35

8.6

18

107.1

9-3

2.68

145

1.09

117

27.1

39

9

17

96.2

8-6

2.51

160

1.01

109

28.6

32

8.4

The biggest difference is innings. All four All-Stars have at least 13 more innings than Abbott. Back-of-the-checkbook math puts that at slightly more than 13 percent, a not insignificant amount.

Peralta has the highest ERA, but the Brewers needed a representative, and he was the best choice. The Dodgers certainly didn’t need another All-Star, but Yamamoto is a deserving candidate. All five players here are deserving. More deserving? That’s tough to say, especially if you consider the game as an exhibition and take into account more than just the first couple of months of the season.

Ray and Peralta have been All-Stars before. Ray also has a Cy Young Award at home. Boyd is having a resurgent year in his first season with the Cubs and is one of the three representatives for the NL Central leaders. The Cubs are the only team from the NL Central with more than one All-Star.

The Dodgers, including “Legend Pick” Clayton Kershaw, have five players on the National League roster. Los Angeles has sent at least five players to the All-Star Game in each of the last six contests. Kershaw’s selection did not count against the roster limits.

Abbott was deserving of an All-Star nod — and could very likely still receive it as players drop out — but it’s hard to say any of those who were picked ahead of him didn’t.

Last week’s social media controversy

On a podcast last week, Arizona Diamondbacks starters Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen discussed pitching in Great American Ball Park when Kelly said the Reds were “cheating for sure” with the height of the mound.

This is fun for aggregators and Redditors, but it’s not exactly a new accusation. It’s been discussed so much that those who have spent any time around the team, myself included, dismissed the charge because it’s been litigated many times already.

I’ve spoken with Reds officials and MLB officials about it many times over the year, and both entities, on multiple occasions, told me it’s been tested numerous times. Each time, the mound is up to code.

The first person I remember talking about this was Homer Bailey, who (as we celebrated the anniversary of his second no-hitter last week) was convinced the mound at Great American Ball Park was too low.

MLB and the Reds have used lasers and surveying tools to determine that the mound meets standards.

The most common explanation I’ve heard is that it could be an optical illusion. That’s not exactly a satisfying theory, but it’s more plausible than any of the conspiracy theories.

Improving against lefties?

Among the Reds’ biggest needs approaching the trade deadline, right-handed hitting has been seen as perhaps the biggest. But the Reds got back two of their better right-handed bats recently when outfielder Austin Hays and third baseman Noelvi Marte, both right-handed hitters, returned from injury.

Since Hays returned from the IL on June 27, the Reds are hitting .276/.324/.469 against left-handed pitchers in 105 plate appearances. Over the same timeframe, the Reds are hitting .224/.288/.317 against right-handed pitchers in 205 plate appearances. On the season, the Reds are hitting .223/.299/.357 against lefties and .254/.324/.412 against right-handers.

That’s not saying the team fixed its problems against lefties, but it is a promising sign.

Another promising sign is what De La Cruz has done from the right side recently. In his first 45 games, De La Cruz hit .228/.290/.351 with two home runs in 62 plate appearances against lefties. In the last 45 games, he’s hitting .254/.290/.441 with three homers against lefties in 62 plate appearances. That’s not enough of a sample to be significant — really, it’s just two more hits and three more extra-base hits — but anecdotally, De La Cruz has looked better from the right side recently.

Prospect list updates

Our own Keith Law updates his top prospect list after the draft, but until then, you can check out two of the other big names in prospect rankings and where Reds players stand in the recently updated rankings from Baseball America and MLB.com.

Baseball America moved Chase Burns from No. 27 before the season to No. 9 in July. Rhett Lowder, who has been injured all season, fell from No. 26 to No. 55, while Chase Petty was No. 98 preseason and fell out of the top 100. The team’s two Futures Game participants, catcher Alfredo Duno and infielder Sal Stewart, were both added to the midseason list, falling at No. 69 and No. 90, respectively.

MLB.com also moved Burns up, from No. 26 to No. 2. Lowder took over Burns’ spot at No. 26 in MLB.com’s rankings, up from 35th before the season. Stewart moved up from No. 83 to No. 52, and his teammate in Chattanooga, Cam Collier, is now MLB.com’s No. 62 prospect after starting the season at No. 90. While Baseball America moved Petty down, MLB.com didn’t have him among the top 100 before the season and now has him No. 77. Duno entered MLB.com’s rankings at No. 93, while shortstop Edwin Arroyo, the No. 91 prospect in the preseason, fell out of their top 100.

The week that was

Terry Francona’s “Ghost of Jobs Past” tour concluded this week with a trip to Boston and Philadelphia to face two former clubs, both of whom took two of three from the Reds. Cincinnati came back to win the final game of the series in Boston, scoring all eight of their runs in the seventh and eighth innings, including a go-ahead grand slam by Christian Encarnacion-Strand, to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win 8-4. The Phillies chased the lefty Abbott after just 3 1/3 innings on Friday, but the Reds scored nine runs from the second to the fifth, beating Philadelphia 9-6. The Reds are still the only team in baseball not to have been swept so far this year, but they tested that this week. On the positive side, 3B Noelvi Marte returned from the IL after missing two months with an oblique injury. He went 0 for 5 with an RBI, two walks and a strikeout in his first two games back.

The week ahead

The Reds have about as favorable a schedule as you could ask for to close out the first half of the season, coming back home to face the 40-48 Miami Marlins for four games and then three games to close out the first half with the 21-69 Colorado Rockies. Francona enters the week four wins shy of becoming just the 13th manager in baseball history to record 2,000 career wins. Dusty Baker (2,183 wins) and Sparky Anderson (2,194 wins) are the only other 2,000-win managers to have helmed the Reds. Bruce Bochy of the Texas Rangers is the only active manager with more wins than Francona, while Bochy and Baker are the only two 2,000-win managers not in the Hall of Fame.

Injury updates

• RHP Hunter Greene (right-groin strain) threw a bullpen on Saturday and could begin a rehab assignment this week.

• RHP Carson Spiers (right-shoulder impingement) pitched 2 1/3 innings on Thursday for the Reds’ Arizona Complex League team. He allowed two hits and struck out four of the nine batters he faced. He’s expected to be transferred to Louisville this week.

• IF/OF Connor Joe (Hand, foot and mouth disease) was sent to Triple-A Louisville on a rehab assignment. Joe was hitless in his first 11 at-bats over parts of three games before hitting an RBI single in the eighth inning on Sunday.

Minor-league report

• Triple-A Louisville (37-50): OF Blake Dunn extended his on-base streak to 28 games with two hits in Sunday’s loss to Indianapolis. But it was the 27th game that made it interesting. Dunn entered the game as a pinch-runner in the eighth inning on Saturday with the Bats trailing 1-0. He didn’t score that inning, but the Bats then put up three runs in the top of the ninth, with Dunn driving in the final run on a bases-loaded walk. He also walked twice the night before to extend the streak. Since beginning the streak June 3, he’s hitting .283/.430/.365 with 20 walks and 22 strikeouts in 109 plate appearances.

• Double-A Chattanooga (43-34): OF Austin Hendrick, the team’s first-round pick in 2020, had his best game as a pro in Friday’s victory against Birmingham (White Sox), recording four hits, five RBIs, getting on base five times, hitting two home runs and ending the game with a walk-off single in the ninth inning. It was just his second four-hit game as a pro and first since 2021 and his second multi-homer game of the season. His five times on base was a new career-high, while his five RBIs tied his personal best, set earlier this season. Hendrick is hitting .263/.337/.468 with nine home runs in 53 games this season.

• High-A Dayton (27-53): RHP Jose Montero started the season 2-1 with a 2.72 ERA in his first eight starts of the season — then June hit. In June, the 21-year old native of Venezuela had more earned runs (17) than innings pitched (16 2/3). On July 1, he gave up three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, but Sunday, he threw five shutout innings on just two hits with three walks and five strikeouts. On the season, he’s now 4-3 with a 4.48 ERA. Over 14 starts and 62 1/3 innings, he has 51 strikeouts and 29 walks. Last year, he was 4-6 with a 3.47 ERA over 25 appearances and 16 starts with Daytona.

• Class A Daytona (37-43): C Alfredo Duno, who will participate in the Futures Game on Sunday, extended his on-base streak to a franchise-record 32 games with a first-inning single in Saturday’s victory. On Sunday, he added to his record, going 0 for 3 but walking. Duno, 19, was hitting .264/.412/.442 in 69 games and 308 plate appearances. In the 33 games from May 23 to July 5, Duno hit .304/.480/.455 in 152 plate appearances.

(Photo: Sam Greene / USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images)